Silas Marner

Silas Marner was a weaver who lived alone at the edge of the village of Raveloe, and for fifteen years his only friend had been his little pile of gold.Then, one dark night, a thief had crept in and carried the gold away.Since the robbery, Silas often left his cottage door open in the evening, staring out at the road, as if the money might somehow come back to him.

It was New Year’s Eve, and snow was falling softly over the fields.Silas sometimes fell into a strange, still trance in which he stood without moving and saw nothing around him.As he stood in the open doorway that night, one of these spells came over him, and he did not notice a small figure coming through the snow.

A little girl, no more than two years old, had wandered away from something lying still in the snow by the road.She saw the bright firelight through Silas’s open door, crawled toward the warmth, and sat down on the hearth.There, close to the fire, she fell fast asleep.

When the trance passed, Silas shut the door and turned back toward the fire — and saw something gold shining on the hearth.His heart leaped: he thought his lost money had been brought back to him.But when he bent down and put out his hand, his fingers touched not hard coins but soft, warm golden curls.

The child woke, looked up at the strange man, and cried out for her mother.Something in Silas stirred — a memory of a baby sister he had carried in his arms long ago, in the town he had left.He warmed some porridge and fed her, took off her wet little boots, and held her until she was quiet again.

Following her small wet footprints back out into the night, Silas found a young woman lying dead in the snow, and understood that the child was now alone in the world.He carried her to the great house to fetch help — and where his gold had shut him away from everyone, this child would slowly open his heart again.